Burros bounced by Tahquitz in first round

HEMET — An up-and-down 2013 season for the Burroughs football team ended with an inconsistent performance in the first round of the Eastern Division playoffs on Friday night. The Burros fell behind Tahquitz by three scores in the first half and couldn't recover in a 35-14 defeat.

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By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Nov. 19, 2013 at 2:24 PM

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Nov. 19, 2013 at 2:24 PM

HEMET — An up-and-down 2013 season for the Burroughs football team ended with an inconsistent performance in the first round of the Eastern Division playoffs on Friday night. The Burros fell behind Tahquitz by three scores in the first half and couldn't recover in a 35-14 defeat.

"The game went kind of the same way the season has," Burros head coach Todd Mather said.

Burroughs (5-6) started the game with a short field after a failed onside kick attempt by Tahquitz on the opening kickoff, and methodically moved the ball. The Burros had first-and-goal at the Tahquitz 3-yard line, but ultimately weren't able to come away with points.

Burroughs lost 14 yards on consecutive plays, and on third-and-goal running back Trevor Baker dropped a pass in the end zone. A 34-yard field goal attempt missed short, and the Burros gave the ball back to Tahquitz (9-2) after failing to score on a six-minute opening drive.

"They tried trickery and gave us good field position — we just have to take advantage of that," Mather said. "It was a good drive — we ate a lot of clock — and to get no points was frustrating."

Tahquitz struck on its third offensive play, opening the scoring with an 81-yard touchdown pass from Nolan Valdez to Devion Fields-Pickett with 5:37 remaining in the first quarter — a two-point conversion on the extra point made it 8-0. The Titans added two more touchdowns in the air in the next seven minutes, as they exploited Burroughs' pass defense to quickly build a big lead.

"We knew they were athletic, and our pass coverage has been suspect," Mather said. "We shut the run down and they threw the ball on us — they had success like most teams have lately."

Valdez connected with receiver Michael Stewart for touchdowns of 27 and 25 yards, the second of which capped a 95-yard drive and put Tahquitz ahead 22-0 less than two minutes into the second quarter. After its opening drive, Burroughs' offense totaled 17 yards on two first-quarter possessions and couldn't keep the Titans off the field.

"I just thought we were off. We were doing a terrible job of picking up their blitzes — they were only blitzing two guys, so it was 5-on-5," Mather said. "It wasn't stuff that we didn't work on, they were just confusing our guys a little bit."

Burroughs trailed 22-0 at halftime after struggling on both sides of the ball in the opening two quarters. The Burros' defense settled in after surrendering three touchdowns, but their offense never got going and had only 68 yards at the break.

"We preached so much about not coming out flat in the second half that I think we came out flat in the first half," Mather said. "That put us down early and kind of took the wind out of some of our kids."

Page 2 of 3 - On the opening drive of the second half, Burroughs' defense came up with the team's first big play of the game. Burros linebacker Isaiah Ramon delivered a huge hit on Tahquitz running back Darrick Peters, and defensive back Zach Springs scooped up the loose ball and returned it to the Titans' 40-yard line.

Burroughs capitalized on the turnover, scoring in four plays for its first points of the game. Quarterback Ryan Sanford hit receiver Kyle Cornell over the middle for a 17-yard touchdown that made the score 22-7 less than three minutes into the second half; Cornell finished with four catches for 43 yards.

The Burros had the momentum, and on the following drive it looked like they would stop Tahquitz after forcing a third-and-long. Then the Titans completed an improbable deep pass to regain control of the game.

Valdez threw a pass down the sideline into bracketed double coverage that appeared to have little chance of completion. Sanford and Springs settled under the lobbed pass, but collided and allowed Stewart to come up with the catch that went for a 65-yard gain. On the next play Peters ran for a 24-yard score that put Tahquitz ahead 29-7.

"We drew up in the locker room how we were going to bracket (Stewart) in the second half — Ryan is there, Zach is there, we had the perfect coverage, we knew what was coming, and we had them backed up," Mather said. "And he catches it."

Still down by three scores late in the third quarter, Burroughs put Tyron Jones at quarterback to try to spark a comeback — and the Burros' playmaker made an immediate impact. On the second play of the drive, Jones took the snap and ran off tackle for a 71-yard score that cut Tahquitz's lead to 29-14 with 1:42 left in the third quarter.

Burroughs' offense had the ball twice early in the fourth quarter with the chance to make it a one-possession game, but fumbled the ball on each drive to keep from getting any closer to Tahquitz. After the second turnover, Valdez connected with Stewart on a 62-yard touchdown to put the Titans ahead 35-14 with 7:12 left and end any chance of a Burros' comeback.

"They let us in it — we came within two scores and we had fumbles with the chance to cut it to one score. We just could never get over that hump," Mather said.

Stewart finished with 14 catches for 288 yards and three touchdowns, and the 6-foot-2-inch receiver was a nightmare for the Burros' secondary all game long. Valdez was 21-of-36 for 453 yards and four touchdowns, and repeatedly targeted Stewart against smaller Burroughs defensive backs.

"I told my coaches, 'Trust me, put the ball in my hands and I'm going to make plays.' They did and I made plays," Stewart said. "Pretty much everything was working in the pass game. The coaches told us we were going to keep passing until they stopped us — and they didn't."

Page 3 of 3 - Jones had a game-high 110 yards rushing on 12 carries, most of it coming on his third-quarter touchdown run. Sanford was 6-of-12 for 54 yards, and added 46 yards on the ground.

Burroughs' roller coaster season — the team started 1-3 then won four straight before losing three in a row — came to an end with a disappointing defeat against a beatable opponent. Streaky play that haunted the Burros at times in the regular season resurfaced as they failed to reach the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

"Our team was a lot better than our record, and we just didn't get those big wins that we needed," Mather said. "The weaknesses that we knew we had were exposed in those big games."

Burroughs' players were emotional after the loss, and the team stuck around on the field for longer than usual after the game to say its goodbyes to the 2013 season. Mather said he is going to miss this year's group of 20 senior players, some of which he coached on varsity for each of his three seasons as head coach of the Burros.

"I wouldn't want to coach any other group of kids — we have great kids at Burroughs and they work hard," Mather said. "I'm proud of these kids and I'm going to miss them. We had some of the best senior leadership we've ever had here."